Beach time!

This past week, Noah and I made a trip home to be with my family as we roasted and honored my father and his 20 years of service to Troy University. We had a great trip and were able to head to the condo in Panama City Beach, Florida. Dan, Noah and I haven't been able to get down there since last summer so it was a nice break.

There is no coast on the planet - in my opinion - more gorgeous than the Gulf Coast. We saw dolphins, played in the sugar sand, looked for sea shells - it was incredible.

All my life I have traveled there maybe hundreds of times and the beauty of it never gets old. And when you add in the precious sight of our baby boy running in the sand with his red hair sparkeling, it becomes all the more spectacular.

Our Home

I have finally taken photos of our new home! Now that we have been in it for about 2 months (almost) we have it just about finished. Next week we have blinds/shutters being installed in the kitchen and living room and this weekend, Dan is organizing the garage (bless him!). There are a few more pieces of furniture and a new flat screen for the guest room that we'd like to purchase but those can wait a little while. So, other than that, we are settled and enjoying our time together in our new home!

I am struggling right now, to say the least. Yesterday, Dan came home with even more bad news about this deployment. We were looking forward to a couple of "breaks" together while he was in Indiana in training that have now been taken away because he's been signed up for a Cultural Immersion Program. So, when he leaves in October, he's gone for good. The small silver lining is that he's able to (HOPEFULLY...) come home for a brief Christmas visit. But that is all the time we get at home together till 2011.

Needless to say, the weight of this realization is breaking my heart and I could hardly breathe all day yesterday. I hadn't really cried until he told me that news but that was the straw that did me in. We just held each other as the reality of being apart and talking about taking out a secondary life insurance policy, etc sank in. This is the hardest thing I have yet to go through in my life and my spirit is heavy. We are down to our final weeks together until 2011... wow. That is a hard pill to swallow. Prayers are needed.

If you would like to see the photos of our beautiful home, please either post your email address in the comments section or shoot me an email. I am not going to put the link on our blog because that's just wierd to me! You never know who could be looking at photos of your house! So if you are interested, just let me know.